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Articles from santosh krinsky | Selfgrowth.com
- Art as a Dedicated Expression of the Divine - by Submitted on Mar 22, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe object of creative expression through art is of primary importance to the spiritual seeker. As long as art is used as a way to enhance the vital ego, achieve recognition, fame, wealth, it has little, if any, value for spiritual practice. These objectives, in and of themselves, are part of ...
Views: 690 - As We Become Aware of the Extent of the Challenges, We Come Nearer to the Solutions Required - by Submitted on Mar 10, 2025 from santosh krinskyIn the preceding page, a passage from The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo was cited. The Mother is commenting on her impressions while reading that passage. The challenges involved in changing the awareness and consciousness radically enough to recognise that the apparent primacy of the ...
Views: 172 - Ascent and Integration Define Spiritual Progress for the Seeker - by Submitted on Nov 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyTransforming human nature does not happen overnight. There are thus periods when the spiritual force is actively experienced and descending into the being; and then, there are other periods where it needs to adjust the responses of the mind, the life energy and the physical body to both hold and ...
Views: 87 - Ascent of Consciousness and the Descent of the Higher Consciousness Into Mind-Life-Body - by Submitted on Sep 22, 2021 from santosh krinskySpiritual practices that focus on liberation from the nature attempt to achieve that liberation through abandonment of the external life and a one-pointed concentration on the spiritual consciousness. The integral Yoga has an additional goal of bringing the higher spiritual forces and knowledge, ...
Views: 602 - Aspiration and Prayer - by Submitted on Dec 20, 2022 from santosh krinskyMany people confuse aspiration with prayer. They are however, actually two different things, and while they may support one another when they align, it is not necessary that aspiration lead to prayer. Aspiration refers to the inner state of consciousness that arises from the psychic being in a ...
Views: 476 - Aspiration and the Witness Consciousness - by Submitted on Nov 18, 2024 from santosh krinskyWhen spiritual seekers attempt to implement the technique of the separation of Purusha and Prakriti, they generally go through a stage where they try to utilize the mind to observe. The mind, however, is not the instrument for the actual shift to the standpoint of the Purusha; in fact, the mind ...
Views: 235 - Aspiration, Desire and the Action of the Divine Force - by Submitted on Jun 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyAspiration is frequently confused with a form of vital desire that ‘wants’ some kind of spiritual development, experience or result. Aspiration, however, originates in the psychic being, while desire stems from the vital being. The characteristics of the two are therefore dramatically different ...
Views: 142 - Aspiration, Faith and Realisation - by Submitted on Jun 26, 2022 from santosh krinskyAspiration in terms of the yogic process is a tuning of the consciousness towards the spiritual reality, and thereby shifting the focus away from the ego-personality to the divine. The aspiration directs the attention, but must be followed up with an attitude of receptivity so that the response, ...
Views: 628 - Aspiration, Spiritual Experience, and the Response of the Divine Force - by Submitted on May 03, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo concisely outlines the processes and steps of the integral yoga. The progress is based on a two-fold collaboration between the individual Soul and the divine Force, brought about through a tuning process for the human individual through what is called ...
Views: 653 - Aspiration: the Desire of the Soul for the Divine - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2021 from santosh krinskySome people interpret the need to eliminate desire as becoming essentially cold and unmoved by anything. They even treat desire for the Divine realisation as something to eventually be eliminated. The subtlety and narrowness of the path makes it easy to stray in one direction or the other, and ...
Views: 712 - Astrology: Destiny, Possibility, or Irrelevancy? - by Submitted on Mar 06, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere are those who treat astrology as a science, those who believe that our fate is determined by the “stars” and also those who believe that astrology is a pseudo-science with no real basis in anything that can meaningfully either control our destiny or even signify events in our lives. How ...
Views: 317 - Attaining Certainty About the Actuality of the Reversal of Consciousness - by Submitted on May 24, 2023 from santosh krinskySeekers wonder how they can be sure that the true shift of consciousness to the divine standpoint, or even a soul-centric standpoint has occurred. The status is so ‘real’ that it permits no doubt whatsoever. When one combines this sense of reality with the way in which one reacts totally ...
Views: 433 - Attaining Free Will By Overcoming the Sense of Individual Separation in the Manifestation and Our Bondage to the Cause and Effect Trajectory That Creates Our Present Opportunities and Choices - by Submitted on Dec 12, 2023 from santosh krinskyAs the mental being develops and we begin to experience the sense of separation from the other beings who are part of the creation, we also begin to have a sense that we have “free will” and make our own independent choices. To a great degree, this sense is misplaced, insofar as our current ...
Views: 321 - Attaining Mastery Over the Sex Impulse - by Submitted on Jan 13, 2026 from santosh krinskyAs the spiritual seeker begins to address the question of mastery over the sex-impulse, he becomes aware of the difficulties of tackling a deeply embedded process that stretches back into the early phases of animal evolution, and thus, has acquired a strong power base within the being. This ...
Views: 65 - Attaining Peace in the Being - by Submitted on Oct 21, 2022 from santosh krinskyA central key to attaining peace lies in achieving the poise of non-attachment. Non-attachment is sometimes confused with avoidance of action, or some kind of renunciation. But non-attachment can develop even among those who are active in the world. King Janaka was known as being non-attached ...
Views: 488 - Attitude and the Law of Attraction - by Submitted on Oct 26, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe ‘law of attraction’ has been seen as something of a ‘wish-fulfilling gem’, where we can think about something and focus on it, and thereby draw it to us. The reality of the law of attraction is not so dramatic as to cause riches, fame and other desired results to manifest for us somewhat ...
Views: 332 - Automatic Writing, Ouija Boards, the Planchette and Communication With People After Their Death - by Submitted on Jun 21, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe see a proliferation of people who claim to act as intermediaries through a process of seance, or use of a Ouija board or planchette, to communicate with individuals who have passed away. The interest in this area goes through periods of peaks and troughs, but continually captures the popular ...
Views: 281 - Avatars and Vibhutis Focus Their Attention and Action on the Work to Be Done - by Submitted on Mar 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe mind creates a number of illusions and misconceptions about Avatars and Vibhutis. Many of these ideas assume, wrongly, that a conscious manifestation of the Divine in the world must be likewise all-knowing and all-powerful, and they thus attribute miraculous powers and actions to those who ...
Views: 557 - Avoiding Dangers of Opening to the Vital Planes - by Submitted on Aug 31, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen the protective walls of the surface being give way as the seeker enters the inner planes, access to the vital planes may occur, with all of the beings, powers and forces at work there having suddenly direct interchange with the seeker. Sometimes these forces are intimidating, sometimes, ...
Views: 721 - Avoiding Self-Deception While Developing the Power of Intuition - by Submitted on Jan 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen a seeker begins to explore the inner realms and undertakes what Sri Aurobindo describes in his epic poem, Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, as an ‘adventure of consciousness and joy’, he is confronted with numerous unfamiliar circumstances, powers, forces, and pressures that are not all ...
Views: 247 - Awakening and Transformation of the Subconscious Must Precede Change at the Inconscient Levels of Existence - by Submitted on Aug 26, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe inconscient level is a substratum for the broader manifestation and is not tied to any particular individual. Before anything can be done to effectively wake up and energize the inconscient, the task of the spiritual seeker is to bring down the light and consciousness through all the higher ...
Views: 364 - Awakening of the Chakras Opens Up Undreamed Potential in Our Being - by Submitted on Nov 10, 2024 from santosh krinskyIf we run a small current through a wire to a light bulb, but below the capacity of the bulb, it will light up, although it may flicker. If we increase the current the light bulb brightens and the illumination becomes constant. If we put too much current through the bulb, we may start a fire or ...
Views: 213 - Awakening the Kundalini Energy From Below or From Above - by Submitted on Nov 07, 2024 from santosh krinskyTraditional paths of yoga describe the various chakras, or subtle energy centers, that act as collecting and disseminating points for various specific vibrational patterns related to the action of that specific chakra. Certain paths, such as various Tantric disciplines as well as the well-known ...
Views: 310 - Awareness and True Discrimination of Forces Are Essential for the Spiritual Seeker to Avoid Distractions and Deviations from the Path - by Submitted on Dec 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen a spiritual seeker begins to appreciate the forces at work in the world that try to influence and manipulate his behaviour, one of the first reactions tends to be to try to close oneself off, wall oneself off, not take cognizance of these forces. This is the power of the anchorite ...
Views: 93 - Balance and Harmony in Relation to Food and the Nourishment of the Body - by Submitted on Sep 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is a human trait. We tend to oscillate between extremes. Too much, or too little, seems to be our method of living. Wise men, sages and Rishis throughout the ages have counseled ‘moderation in all things’, the ‘middle way’, the way of ‘balance’. These tenets for living are also helpful in our ...
Views: 108 - Balancing Detachment, Indifference and Caretaking of the Body - by Submitted on Aug 29, 2025 from santosh krinskyWhen we hear that we must cultivate detachment and indifference to the physical body as the instrument of our external interactions in the world, we tend to immediately jump to the idea that we must renounce everything and simply let the body do whatever happens without any care or concern for ...
Views: 125 - Balancing the Spiritual Practice Between Positive Focus and Addressing Faults and Weaknesses - by Submitted on Mar 28, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere is a tendency among human beings to react with extremes. Something is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. ‘black’ or ‘white’, ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. This occurs due to the linear nature of the mental consciousness aided by a vital nature that wants to assert itself by being ‘right’. For the ...
Views: 167 - Bases of Yoga — Introduction - by Submitted on Sep 13, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs one begins the actual practice of yoga, one becomes aware of the various forms of difficulties in gaining the cooperation of and control over the various parts of our internal being. The mind races when we try to sit for meditation. We become aware of desires and compulsions that formerly ...
Views: 98 - Bases of Yoga: Summary and Conclusions - by Submitted on Mar 03, 2026 from santosh krinskyIn various places, Sri Aurobindo has noted that yoga is applied psychology. The practitioner of yoga is confronted by all of the instincts, habits, trained responses and reactions of human nature and is asked to address and change these in order to uplift the human being to the next stage of the ...
Views: 44 - Basic Overview of the Mental Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 16, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe mental consciousness evolved subsequent to the emergence of the physical consciousness and the vital consciousness. It appears in rudimentary forms in various animals, and advances to a much higher state of activity and power in the higher primates, including human beings, as well as ...
Views: 180 - Basic Overview of the Vital Consciousness - by Submitted on Feb 15, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe life force brings mobility and increased responsiveness compared to the physical being. It operates primarily under the impulsion of attraction and repulsion. The predominant quality or Guna is Rajas, which brings energy, action, and progress, while at the same time, its deformations can ...
Views: 182 - Becoming Aware of and Distinguishing the Source of Vibrations Impacting our Lives - by Submitted on Apr 24, 2024 from santosh krinskyOur consciousness tends to be so fluid and so mixed that it is difficult, if not practically impossible, to distinguish what represents our own internal process and what is coming to us from outside, from our interaction with others, from environmental influences. None of these things remains ...
Views: 297 - Becoming Aware of Consciousness Independent of the Body, Life and Mind - by Submitted on Sep 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhat is consciousness? How can we understand consciousness separate from what we believe to be ourselves, the body, vital force and mental framework that we identify with? Philosophers, scientists and religious leaders have all tried to develop a definition of “consciousness”. Rene Descartes ...
Views: 530 - Becoming Aware of Cosmic and Universal Forces That Impact Our Existence - by Submitted on May 06, 2024 from santosh krinskyEnormous forces are at work in the universe. Vast numbers of stars and their planetary groupings move at high speed. Radiation of various sorts streams throughout the universe. There is a cosmic background radiation that scientists can now measure as they develop ever-finer instrumentation to ...
Views: 302 - Becoming Aware of Our Faults Is the First Step Toward Overcoming Them - by Submitted on Mar 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyIt is difficult for an individual to see his own shortcomings or faults. Many times we see them reflected in others and we externalise them to such a degree that we take exception to the other person, not recognising that we are seeing our own faults displayed in front of us. If we have a ...
Views: 166 - Becoming Aware of the Central Will of the Being - by Submitted on Dec 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe decisive spiritual experiences an individual has stay with him throughout his life. Those who are anchored in their external lives undergo countless experiences but these tend to fade, become jumbled or simply blend into one another. Who can, after all, remember what they ate for breakfast ...
Views: 465 - Becoming Aware of the Existence of the Environmental Consciousness - by Submitted on Sep 04, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen we see someone struggling, or when we ourselves are struggling, with some feeling, emotion, thought, idea, force of illness, or just feeling some pressure, we usually associate these with our internal experience of reality, but nevertheless, the fact that forces and influences come from ...
Views: 559 - Becoming Aware of the Illusion of the External Life - by Submitted on May 25, 2023 from santosh krinskyMany people are begin to reflect, and even entertain the notion, that the world we experience on a day to day basis is somehow unreal or illusory. Films such as the dystopian story set forth in The Matrix envision that human beings are fettered and their brains wired so they experience a form of ...
Views: 410 - Becoming Aware of the Inner Being and Taking Up the Spiritual Life - by Submitted on Jul 21, 2021 from santosh krinskyFor most people, their lives are focused on their external relationships, their own individual self-satisfaction and their ability to manipulate their social and environmental reality to achieve objectives set by their ego-personality. Many do not have any meaningful relationship to any inner ...
Views: 605 - Becoming Aware of the Soul and Its Action on Our External Being - by Submitted on May 07, 2026 from santosh krinskyWe cannot see electricity, but we can see its action through the effects it brings about. Many things occur which we cannot identify with our senses directly, but which we can interpret based on results. In a similar way, while we cannot specifically identify the soul, per se, we can identify ...
Views: 7 - Becoming Conscious and Effecting Change in the Nature - by Submitted on May 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyFor the most part, we react to things without considering the source of the impression that sparks the reaction, the process of the reaction or the manner in which the impression is converted into a response. These things simply “happen” and we tend to accept them as ‘human nature’ or, in some ...
Views: 615 - Becoming Conscious In Sleep - by Submitted on May 15, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhen the idea of becoming conscious in sleep is raised, many people try simply to find ways to remain awake somehow in sleep. This process generally leads to exhaustion, and imbalances in the physical, vital and mental complex of the outer nature. Sleep is restorative to their processes, and any ...
Views: 589 - Becoming Conscious of Oneself - by Submitted on Aug 12, 2024 from santosh krinskyA devotee residing at Sri Aurobindo Ashram some years ago tried an experiment which he reported. For a specific time period he determined not to speak. He did not do this in an indiscriminate way, however. He implemented this experiment by avoiding all social speech whatsoever, but agreed to ...
Views: 267 - Becoming Conscious of the Multiple Sheaths or Planes of Our Being - by Submitted on Jul 01, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn the Taittiriya Upanishad, the seeker discovers, through intensive tapasya that there are multiple layers, or sheaths, of consciousness that make up the human being. His seeking first discovers the material body, or ‘food sheath’. As he continues he recognises the vital body, or ‘prana ...
Views: 414 - Becoming Conscious of the Psychic Being, the Soul in Man - by Submitted on Sep 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere are many different spiritual disciplines and methods, and also different experiences of consciousness that result from practice of these methods. For those who aspire to bring the soul, the psychic being, forward and active in the physical body and life, Sri Aurobindo describes several ...
Views: 533 - Beginning the Process of Bringing Meditation into One’s Life - by Submitted on Feb 16, 2023 from santosh krinskyIf we shift to the standpoint of the observer of the mind, we will notice that as conditions vary, the ‘mind-stuff’ (citta) takes on different characteristics based on our state of reactivity and interaction with perceptions, feelings, events or external circumstances. We may consider an image ...
Views: 543 - Being and Becoming and the Soul and the Psychic Being - by Submitted on Mar 29, 2026 from santosh krinskyWhen we gaze into space at night, we see stars unimaginably distant from us. We also can experience. if we suspend our thinking mind and vital desire-soul and physical demands temporarily, a sense of the timeless, the immutable, unchanging Reality that exceeds our ability to embrace and ...
Views: 27 - Beyond Human Love — Psychic Love, Universal Love and Love for the Divine - by Submitted on Feb 07, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe seek for love, we look for it in our relationships, we search for it in a ‘soul mate’, but in the end, we can recognise that human love is limited and uncertain. There are examples of love that spans a lifetime, possibly multiple lifetimes, and there are countless tales of idealised love that ...
Views: 587 - Beyond Mental Ideas to Spiritual Experience - by Submitted on Oct 17, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe human mind is always at work, trying to figure out what life is all about, where we came from, why we are here, what we are to do, what lies in the future. We have developed a countless number of ideas, philosophies, religious concepts, and we become adherents to those that make sense to our ...
Views: 106 - Biological Energy Developed from Food and from Other Sources - by Submitted on May 22, 2024 from santosh krinskyPeople are not generally consciously aware of the energy interchanges that take place to fuel their bodies and drive their live energies. They understand that they need to eat food as a form of ‘fuel’ for their energy, and they count ‘calories’ that are produced by various food sources. Clearly, ...
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